34,	CAESAR      IN      ABYSSINIA
The greater the household, the more refined its functions.
A man to put the master's hat on : a man to support him
into the saddle : a third to hold the left side of the mule's
rump in the street, and a fourth to control the right.
It made many of the Amhara or mixed Amhara-Galla
great men of Addis, selfish. It is some tribute to the
Ethiopian race that it did not deprive them either of the
physical strength or of their battle spirit.
But even so, the loungers were only part absorbed. The
rest did odd jobs, based on the market. A proletariat, dis-
organised but living in freedom and far greater health than
the native proletariat of European towns in Africa. The
smell in the poorest part of Addis Ababa was never so
resonant as the smell at Djibouti. The only overcrowding
was among the prostitutes.
When it rained, the other half of my days, I stayed
indoors. My first visitors were Blatta Kidane Mariam
Aberra and Ato David, in European dress and topees.
Blatta Kidane and Ato David were both young, and like
many of the bright young men in the Emperor's Civil
Service, they were Eritreans or Tigreans. Kidane, who liked
jazz and dancing and had a frank laugh and friendly
manner at the bar, was educated at the Emperor's cost in
France. He spoke French and Italian perfectly. He had
been made Director of Public Instruction and Fine Arts :
one of his jokes was that the latter function enabled him to
drink in the afternoon as well as the evening. " Let the
Fine Arts flourish" was a favourite toast of his.
In spite of his gaiety Blatta Kidane was a patriot. He
organised the Young Ethiopia Society, and later a parallel
organisation among the Ethiopian women, the results of
which sometimes made him laugh aloud.* The Emperor
had put him temporarily in charge of the European Press.
Ato David, more covert in manner and far more difficult
to deal with, had been educated at the Emperor's charge
in Beirut. He spoke English and French and was a master
at one of the Emperor's schools in Addis. This was closing
now and he was to assist at the new Press Bureau. Blatta
* At one meeting the wife of the Emperor's chauffeur told them they
must not be shy.